Fox Ent. is looking for a few good animated laughs to bolster its Sunday toon stronghold anchored by THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY, according THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Fox Ent. president Peter Liguori told the trade that he and his development staff are in the thick of an aggressive summer hunt for new comedy projects that can be launched when AMERICAN IDOL returns for a sixth edition in January 2007.
The network is beating the bushes for new animation projects to air Sunday nights. Liguori said the live-action comedy, THE WAR AT HOME, feels a little out of place in the 9:30 pm slot behind FAMILY GUY on Sundays. Liguori hopes to move WAR to another night to spread more laughs around the schedule.
"We're out there talking to the community and saying very simply: 'We have two straight hours of animation on Sunday. We'd like to make it two and a half', " Liguori told HR.
"I think that something big is going to break out of the comedy genre very soon because we've been in a down cycle in comedy for so long," Liguori said. The off-season push is led by Liguori and his recently reconfigured comedy development team, headed by Susan Levison (who succeeded Jeremy Gold as svp comedy this month).
